Information For Professionals

This section has information for health and social care professionals. If you are a young person, parent or family member, more information can be found by visiting our information for families section.

The Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice provide home-based respite and palliative care for children and young people. This service is provided in addition to services already in place and is free of charge to families.

Russell House is a brand new purpose built children's hospice and we hope to start offering care in the hospice by early next year.

The acceptance criteria for our hospice service are based on the four broad categories of life limiting and life threatening conditions described by ACT and the RCPCH (1997)

Group 1

Life-threatening conditions for which curative treatment may be feasible but can fail. Where access to palliative care services may be necessary when treatment fails (e.g cancer, irreversible organ failures of heart, liver, kidneys)


Group 2

Conditions where premature death is inevitable, where there may be long periods of intensive treatment aimed at prolonging life and allowing participation in other activities. (e.g cystic fibrosis)


Group 3

Progressive conditions without curative treatment options, where treatment is exclusively palliative and may commonly extend over many years. (e.g Batten disease, mucopolysaccaridoses, muscular dystrophy.)

Group 4

Irreversible but non-progressive conditions causing severe disability leading to susceptibility to health complications and likelihood of premature death. (e.g. severe cerebral palsy, multiple disabilities such as brain or spinal cord insult)

Children falling into groups 1, 2 and 3 are guaranteed to be offered care by the Trust.

Additional criteria for children with group 4 conditions
To ensure that we are offer equitable acceptance criteria and services to all children with life limiting or life threatening condition, specific guidelines have been developed to assist the referers in ensuring appropriate referrals are made within group 4.
Children and young people being referred under this category need to fulfill at least three of the following criteria:

  • Total body involvement with poor head control
  • Severe scoliosis that compromises respiratory function
  • Ongoing need for interventions to maintain respirations, including ventilatory support, O2 therapy
  • Regular apnoeic episodes
  • Poorly controlled seizures despite optimum treatment
  • Frequent unplanned hospital admissions, please state number of admissions, reason and length of stays
  • Underlying complex nutritional condition which requires accurate assessment, without which would be life threatening.

We actively encourage referrals and are happy to discuss any children and young people with you. Please email Vicki Finlay, Director of Care, or Michael Tatterton, Deputy Head of Care, or telephone the Care Team on 01484 411040.


Referrals for respite care are accepted during normal office hours. Urgent referrals for end of life care (including hospital discharge) can be made by paging the on call nurse specialist on 07663 700 244.

CQC Registration Status: The link to our CQC Report is available at http://www.cqc.org.uk/directory/1-442758792